The Behavior of Respondents, Nonrespondents, and Refusers Across Mail Surveys

Abstract

Although numerous studies have attempted to measure nonresponse bias by comparing the characteristics of respondents and nonrespondents, most studies have restricted their comparisons to the outcome of a single survey and typically treat nonrespondents as a homogeneous group. However, with regard to mail surveys at least, several studies have noted the importance of distinguishing between nonresponse due to noncompliance and nonresponse due to inaccessibility (Mayer and Pratt 1966;Stinchcombe, Jones, and Sheatsley 1981), raising the possibility that different groups of nonrespondents may have different predispositions toward survey participation.In order to measure a person's predisposition toward survey participation, it is necessary to examine their behavior across surveys. To date, only one published study appears to have done this. Stinchcombe, Jones, and Sheatsley (1981) compared the characteristics and attitudes of early responders, late responders, nonresponders, and refusers to a telephone survey of farmers by examining the responses and participation history of these same farmers to previous mail surveys. They found that the tendency to refuse to participate in surveys was not related to accessibility, or vice versa, and provided evidence that hard-core refusers demonstrated quite different attitudes and behavior from both those easily interviewed and those difficult to contact.Generalizations from Stinchcombe, Jones, and Sheatsley's findings are limited because of the highly specialized sampling frame and topic. But the possibility that respondents, refusers, and other nonrespondents may have different predispositions toward survey participation has important implications for how surveys are conducted and how the effectiveness of survey methods is assessed. The purpose of the We wish to thank the Massey University Research Fund Committee for providing financial assistance for this project.

Individual payments as a longer-term incentive in online panels

“…Over time, however, loyalty points became more attractive relative to the lotteries. Furthermore, the pattern of participation in this study followed a Markov chain (see, e.g., Brennan & Hoek, 1992;Hagenaars, 1990), indicating that participants who had responded at a given wave were more likely to respond in subsequent waves.…”

The Long-Term Effect of Material Incentives on Participation in Online Panels

“…This stability reflects individual panelists' general inclination to Göritz / MATERIAL INCENTIVES AND PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE PANELS 215 participate. This is a commonly encountered phenomenon in both offline (Brennan and Hoek 1992) and online panel studies (Göritz and Wolff 2007).…”

Determinants of mail‐survey response: Survey design factors and respondent factors

“…Industry image research conducted in the early 1980s by Walker Research, Inc. revealed a disturbing downward trend in public opinion regarding the value of participating in survey research (McDaniel, Verille, & Madden, 1985;Schleifer, 1986). Brennan and Hoek (1992), however, found that response refusal behavior remained consistent over multiple requests for data. More recently, Groves and Couper (1998) concluded that, based on a large amount of data from different countries, the rate of response refusal is increasing.…”

“…Second, attitude toward research in general should influence attention. Attitude toward research can be conceptualized as a general construct that summarizes the individual's enduring evaluation of the merits of survey research (Brennan & Hoek, 1992;Goyder, 1986;Sharp & Frankel, 1983) formed over a period of time (Singer et al, 1998). From the above discussion the following hypotheses are derived.…”